SGML is greatly preferred as a mark-up language. Unicode and
eight-bit character sets are preferred over seven-bit character sets

With respect to the other items analysed, the results are less clear
cut. To simplify presentation of the results from this survey, we
adopted the following summation procedure. In the summary tables, a
feature is rated as `mandatory' if it received a
score for ` essential' greater than the three other
scores combined, and as `desirable 'if it
received a combined score for` essential ' and
`if possible ' greater than its `no
opinion' and `don't want' scores combined.
In cases where this procedure resulted in a tied score (e.g. an item
scoring 11 both for `essential' and for the other
options combined), the feature was given the benefit of the doubt and
the higher ranking category chosen (i.e. `mandatory'
in this case).

In addition to these summary scores, the following tables also
indicate the total number of votes cast for each option, since this
varied from feature to feature. The second of the two figures below
indicates the number of votes cast for options other than that
indicated. For example, an item rated `mandatory'
with a score of (21/4) indicates that 21 respondents out of 25 voted it
essential, the remaining 4 voting for one of the other three
possibilities. An item rated `desirable' with a
score of (12/9) indicates that 12 out of 21 respondents voted it
either `essential 'or ` if possible',
while the remaining 9 voted it as either ` no opinion'
or `don't want'.

These responses seem a little capricious: it is difficult to imagine
why marking a numeral for example should be more important than marking
a noun. A closer examination suggests that several of the items rated
`mandatory' here are only marginally so, with very
close or equivalent scores to those rated `desirable'
by our procedure. We conclude that for this particular type of mark-up
the choice between` essential' and `if
possible' has little significance.

As with morphosyntactic features, only a minority of respondents
expressed a requirement for markup of syntactic features. Of those who
did, the following features were all rated as `desirable':